Development and validation of a simplified algorithm for neonatal gestational age assessment - protocol for the Alliance for Maternal Newborn Health Improvement (AMANHI) prospective cohort study.

Objective: The objective of the Alliance for Maternal and Newborn Health Improvement (AMANHI) gestational age study is to develop and validate a programmatically feasible and simple approach to accurately assess gestational age of babies after they are born. The study will provide accurate, population-based rates of preterm birth in different settings and quantify the risks of neonatal mortality and morbidity by gestational age and birth weight in five South Asian and sub-Saharan African sites.

Methods: This study used on-going population-based cohort studies to recruit pregnant women early in pregnancy (<20 weeks) for a dating ultrasound scan.

Validity of Newborn Clinical Assessment to Determine Gestational Age in Bangladesh.

Background: Gestational age (GA) is frequently unknown or inaccurate in pregnancies in low-income countries. Early identification of preterm infants may help link them to potentially life-saving interventions.

Methods: We conducted a validation study in a community-based birth cohort in rural Bangladesh.

Household coping strategies for delivery and related healthcare cost: findings from rural Bangladesh.

Objectives: This study aims to measure the economic costs of maternal complication and to understand household coping strategies for financing maternal healthcare cost.

Methods: A household survey of the 706 women with maternal complication, of whom 483 had normal delivery, was conducted to collect data at 6 weeks and 6 months post-partum. Data were collected on socio-economic information of the household, expenditure during delivery and post-partum, coping strategies adopted by households and other related information.

Genital human papillomavirus infection among women in Bangladesh: findings from a population-based survey.

Background: There has been no population-based study on human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence or its genotypes in Bangladesh; a country eligible for GAVI funding for HPV vaccine.

Methods: We used baseline survey data of a prospective cohort study that was conducted in one urban and one rural area of Bangladesh. A total of 997 urban and 905 rural married women, aged 13 to 64 years, were enrolled in the baseline during July-December, 2011.

Costs of maternal health-related complications in Bangladesh.

This paper assesses both out-of-pocket payments for healthcare and losses of productivity over six months postpartum among women who gave birth in Matlab, Bangladesh. The hypothesis of the study objective is that obstetric morbidity leads women to seek care at which time out-of-pocket expenditure is incurred. Second, a woman may also take time out from employment or from doing her household chores.

Profile of maternal and foetal complications during labour and delivery among women giving birth in hospitals in Matlab and Chandpur, Bangladesh.

Worldwide, for an estimated 358,000 women, pregnancy and childbirth end in death and mourning, and beyond these maternal deaths, 9-10% of pregnant women or about 14 million women per year suffer from acute maternal complications. This paper documents the types and severity of maternal and foetal complications among women who gave birth in hospitals in Matlab and Chandpur, Bangladesh, during 2007-2008. The Community Health Research Workers (CHRWs) of the icddr,b service area in Matlab prospectively collected data for the study from 4,817 women on their places of delivery and pregnancy outcomes.

Effect of parent's death on child survival in rural Bangladesh: a cohort study.

Background: The effect of a parent's death on the survival of the children has been assessed in only a few studies. We therefore investigated the effect of the death of the mother or father on the survival of the child up to age 10 years in rural Bangladesh.

Methods: We used data from population surveillance during 1982-2005 in Matlab, Bangladesh.